HOCKEY: Sibley fires Bridgwater to vcitory

BRIDGWATER Men made it three wins on the bounce with an emphatic victory over Bristol University on Saturday.

Goals from Slocombe and Sibley (2) put the game to bed for the home side, as they despatched the students.

After a goalless first half hour, a pass through from Dyte found Slocombe in the D and he calmly lifted the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper.

Bridgwater came out quickly after the break and soon found themselves 2-0 up, Sibley hitting a reverse shot which flew into the back of the goal.

Then Tim Bennett combined with Jenkins who played an early pass through to Sibley who beat the defender and produced an almost identical finish to his first goal.

After a break of five minutes due to a sudden outbreak of hailstones, Bristol Uni started to play some fast direct hockey looking to get back in to the game.

With 15 minutes to go, Bridgwater, looking for a second clean sheet in a row, dug in and the Upham Brothers made some fantastic tackles, ably supported by Saunders in goal.

The game could have become four or five to nil – Willis and Bennett had good chances but neither could find a finish.

Bridgwater Men’s 2nd 4, ISCA 5th 0

BRIDGWATER’S return to winning ways was all down to the return of Daniel Rogers. They played some fast-paced hockey which opened up ISCA, leading to goals from Harry Stephenson and Cam Birch.

The second half was much the same, this time with goals from Tim Sullivan and Paul Tilley resulting in a good win for Bridgwater, and allowing the team to rest players for the cup game on Sunday.

Man of the match was Harry Stephenson.

Bridgwater Men’s 3rd 6, PGSOB 4th 1

TWO goals apiece from Steve Turvey and Dan Batten fired Bridgwater Mens III to a thrashing of PGSOB.

Rich Payne and Andy Cook added the extras as Bridgwater cruised to victory.

A nice move through the midfield linked Andy Cook and Sam Uminski, who found Rich Payne whose reverse shot into the corner for opened the scoring for Bridgwater.

Next it was Ben Lewis who played a neat pass to Dan Pigden who squared to Payne whose shot was just about to go in but Steve Turvey felt the need to make sure, and hit the ball over as it was touching the goal line for 2-0.

Phil Morrish played a nice lob to Dan Batten who beat three opposition defenders and slotted into the goal for 3-0.

PGSOB countered quickly and scored from their only shot to pull a goal back for 3-1.

Bridgwater returned to score from a short corner, injected by Phil Morrish for Payne to stop and Cook to hit to the far post for Batten to tap in for 4-1.

In the second half, Bridgwater struggled for any cohesion. Andy Cook drag flicked another short corner down the middle and through the keeper’s legs for 5-1 and Steve Turvey rounded off the scoring.

Man of the match went to an impressive Sam Uminski.

Bridgwater Men’s 4th 3, Yeovil & Sherborne 4th 6

BRIDGWATER fourth team’s promotion hopes took a hit as they were well beaten by a more committed Yeovil & Sherborne team.

Having scored 12 the previous week, Bridgwater were not short of confidence, but found themselves a goal down within a minute.

Yeovil’s second goal was again of Bridgwater’s making, having over-committed in attack.

Bridgwater needed a positive response in the second half, but gifted Yeovil two goals within five minutes of the restart.

They finally managed to get a foothold in the game and, after a couple of near misses pulled a goal back through Mike Davidge with Steve Pigden making it 5-2.

But Yeovil countered again, scoring a sixth, before Jordan Rawles completed the scoring to make the final score 6-3.

Bridgwater Men’s 5th 6, Sidmouth & Ottery 6th 1

IT was a convincing win for the fifth team on Saturday as they hammered Sidmouth & Ottery.